We just started a new vegan food business in Brisbane, called "Delicious Regardless". At the moment, we're focussing on baked goods, etc. We're selling vegan cheesecakes and ice cream sandwiches at The Green Edge at the moment, and doing private orders of pretty much anything. We're also doing gluten-free baked goods. I've taken the leap, and decided to have a good go at this, so I've cut back my hours at work to part time so I can focus on being in the kitchen, learning from chefs, developing the business, and spreading the word that Vegan food should be delicious, etc, etc.

If you've got a second and like our philosophy/what we sell, would you PLEASE stop by our Facebook page and website? I'm fairly new to Facebook and would love to see some of your friendly faces..

I'd really really appreciate help spreading the word - two non vegan people have just started a vegan bakery here in Bris and they have great networks and it's getting hard to get our name out there.

Hi!!!! New here :) I'm in Christchurch, NZ. Nice to see some other kiwis and Aussies on here. While not technically vegan I'm basically vegetarian who has replaced all dairy and hates eggs.... So not sure what you call me!

depends on what "easy walking" means to you. according to google maps, it takes an hour and a half to walk there from queens st mall...

Thanks, I hadn't thought to check google maps! :-) It's a shame it's so far, I was hoping to stock up on coconut milk from The Green Edge while I'm over there. Ah well! I'll have to see what other vegan goodies I can find in the CBD.

That's fantastic.. I've just posted on that thread to ask whether it's routine and across all stores.

Have you received a response? I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will be! :-)

It is! I saw them confirm on Twitter or something, and they have little signs up at the ordering counter saying which things are vegan.

I'm going to Sydney for the day tomorrow which I'm not super excited about, mainly because it's just to go to Ikea which isn't exciting, and also because I hate the drive there. It's three and a half hours, but I always kind of trick myself into thinking that Sydney isn't far at all, it's just around the corner, but then three and a half hours always turns out to feel way longer. Whereas if I drive to Melbourne, I know that it's a long time and it'll suck, so I'm pleasantly surprised when it's not that bad. But anyway! I'm going to go to the vegan butcher in Enmore that opened this week. I have high hopes for it!

very broad questions:do any of you have your super with www.crueltyfreesuper.com.au ? (if not: is there any particular reason to avoid them?)anddo any of you have managed investments with any ethical funds? if so, who?

In the CBD I would recommend Vege-rama in the Myer Centre for a quick bite, and it sounds like it might be worth going to Spring (still in the CBD but down the other end in the legal sector, 'Riverside') to get some vegan cake and a coffee! I also like Kuan Yin in Fortitude Valley (suburb next to CBD, easy to get to) for vegan Chinese food and My Heart Garden in St Lucia, which is a little bit out of the CBD. It takes about 15 minutes on the 412 or 411, depending on traffic (add much more travel time for peak hour). It doesn't really take that long to get out to Green Edge on the bus if you wanted to check it out. I just inputted a random time and it looks like it only takes about 20 min: http://jp.translink.com.au/travel-infor ... 1918936475

If you are there over a weekend, you could check out West End markets (also a suburb very close to CBD and easy to get to, buses come all the time, takes maybe 10 minutes depending on where you are in the city). They're on every Saturday. It's a pretty busy mostly-food market, they have vegan pies, empanadas, yummy falafel etc. There is a small market on in the city centre every Wednesday too. The same falafel cart is there and I also really like this dried fruit and nut store, they sell a few yummy nibblies.

I know people ask this all the time, and I usually give recommendations - but we're coming down to Syd Fri-Sun this weekend, and wanted to ask if there's anything new we should definitely check out? We won't have a lot of time, and we're staying near Camperdown and won't be going far as partner is at a Conference at Sydney Uni. I love Green Palace Thai in Newtown, and that's going to be a definite. Green Gourmet, Iku, Bodhi etc were all a bit of a letdown last time (despite me really liking them in previous times).

The Green Edge in Ennogera (you can get there by bus or train, I think) is a *MUST* do. Must, must, must. We are so lucky. Their burgers, milkshakes, icecreams, cakes (my cake plus others) are AMAZING. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Su Life and Loving Hut are both on the Southside and probably too far for you - but they're both really good. I wouldn't recommend anywhere else really in the city area. Tea Master and Kuan Yin are OK, but not great, The Forest is pretty atrocious, Vege Rama is OK, Govindas is OK, but I'd pick Vege Rama first.

I know people ask this all the time, and I usually give recommendations - but we're coming down to Syd Fri-Sun this weekend, and wanted to ask if there's anything new we should definitely check out? We won't have a lot of time, and we're staying near Camperdown and won't be going far as partner is at a Conference at Sydney Uni. I love Green Palace Thai in Newtown, and that's going to be a definite. Green Gourmet, Iku, Bodhi etc were all a bit of a letdown last time (despite me really liking them in previous times).

We just went to Apt for brunch (which was okay- the bookstore it's in is pretty great) and Spoon's Vegetarian Butcher on Sunday. The butcher was awesome! They're pretty obviously still in their early stages so there's not heaps there yet, but we got schnitzels (which we had last night and really, really liked- I'll post a photo of them for MoFo tonight), tomato/basil/polenta sausages, smoked tofu (which isn't made by them, but which was cheaper there than it is in Canberra) and Stonewall's Jerquee. We didn't try the hot food- next time! We parked outside Green Gourmet and walked to the butcher- it's not super close, but not an unreasonably long walk either. Maybe like 15 minutes (on my short legs).

We also went to the Cruelty Free Shop, which was really good for us since we don't have a lot of that stuff in Canberra, but might not be as worth it for you since you have Green Edge. It's pretty much the same stuff as in their online store. Really nice shop, though.

I must be missing something because I've been nothing but disappointed with the vegan options in Adelaide since Sunshine's closed. I just deleted the critiques I just wrote of some vegan places here in Adelaide because in one sense I want to be as supportive as possible, but my experiences of local vegan cafés have not been positive. Overly-priced, unpalatable, lazily prepared (such as serving canned bean salads & not even microwaving revolting mushy bland burgers for long enough so they're not stone cold in the middle). I guess I just rewrote part of my critique but didn't mention any names. :)

I thought Adelaide had some pretty good options! it's not Melbourne, but for the population density there seems to be a decent variety. I've only been there once since I've been vegan, which was earlier this year.. and that was only for a few days, so maybe living there is different. it's a billion times better than Canberra at least :)

There are options here, but ironically, it's a few of the well-known dedicated vegan places that are the most disappointing. We've got Asian food covered with Vegetarian Delight (& in the same complex on Port Road, there's also a great Ethiopian restaurant that does a vegan platter), Thea in the city, & a few others. Ironically, one of my favourite places from my vegetarian days, which is also an Adelaide institution - Sarah's - is so dairy-heavy that there's basically nothing there for vegans (although, to be fair, I've never tried phoning ahead to see if they could rustle something up). It's also quite easy to find a good pizza place whose pizzas are vegan-friendly if you hold the cheese. Queen Street in Croydon has a nice little vegetarian place with some vegan choices too. So there are definitely options, but I'm pretty appalled by the poor quality of those exclusively vegan places I mentioned who serve over-priced, under-par food. I find myself going out for meals less & less these days. My friends & I tend to entertain at home - at least you know you're going to get great food that way. I'm so jealous of all those amazing places in the US!

I've spent a couple of months in Canberra years ago - but I was a vegetarian then, so didn't have too many issues. That's a pity that there aren't many vegan options there!

To be honest, Karena -I've found most of the purely vegan places are the worst of all, everywhere. Especially if they're not ethnic.

Really? Hmm, I hadn't thought about this...I thought it was just an unfortunate Adelaide thing. We did have a vegan restaurant here, a good few years ago now, called Sunshine's (but it started out with a different name that I can't recall). At the time I was a vegetarian & think I'd have a much better appreciation of it now if it was still around. It was fancier & the dishes more refined than, say, Vegie Bar, & the food was excellent. The chef & his family were vegan & he was really passionate about making great food without compromise. Loved that place!

Apart from that, I love Vegie Bar (the majority of their food seems to be vegan rather than vegetarian?) - inexpensive, generous, well-balanced & lots of variety. If Adelaide had something similar I'd be so happy!

The few exclusively vegan places here seem to have this attitude that they have a captive audience & don't have to try very hard (& can charge what they like!).

Are there any exclusively vegan places in other states that are more along the lines of fancier restaurants rather than lunchtime places?

I appreciate the food in Adelaide so much more since I moved to Canberra! I agree that a few vegan places there can be a letdown (and I'm pretty sure I know the ones you mean), but I still have my favourites. Vego and Loving It and Eggless are both great- we don't even have dessert options in Canberra, so the novelty alone is enough to keep me going back! But for all my criticisms of food here, Canberra does do Asian vegan food better than Adelaide- Au Lac here is infinitely better than Vegetarian Delight (which I've never been impressed with).

I think that a place like Vegie Bar would make an absolute killing (not vegan?) in Adelaide.

Yes I think we know what I'm talking about & agree with you about Vego & Eggless! Veg Delight is one of those places that's okay once in a while, but not too often. What I don't like is the lack of freshness & colour - SO much deep-fried food! But since I never deep-fry at home, that's a novelty. I prefer the Ethiopian place next door actually, although there aren't as many options. I've never heard of Au Lac before, but if I ever find myself in Canberra again, I'll know where to go!

From what I recall, Vegie Bar is at least 75% vegan - there really didn't seem to be that many vegetarian options - & there is SO much to choose from! I think they'd make a killing anywhere! Nice to see Adelaide has a vegetarian food cart now http://veggievelo.blogspot.com.au/ with some vegan options. I don't work in the city though, so I haven't had the pleasure yet. But I hear it's great (although I see the dreaded alfalfa sprouts on their burgers!!).

And yeah, I find most of the food at VDs way too heavy/not fresh enough. I hadn't heard about Veggie Velo, but I'm going to be in town in a couple of weekends' time so I'll definitely try to track it down!

ALSO I just posted the first (of a few) Australian-only giveaway on the MoFo blog (veganmofo.com) and people should definitely enter because, you know, the only way to get more giveaways and fun stuff is to enter the ones that we do have.

Here's the other place I mentioned in Croydon. I have friends who live near there so I've been quite often. http://www.let-them-eat.com.au/ Very inexpensive, the salads are great, not that many vegan options, but at least you do have a choice (vegan & gf desserts too!). Queen Street is such a lovely little spot too.